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Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are two of the best cricket teams in Asia. The two nations have recorded some of the most memorable victories in cricket history. While Sri Lanka won the ICC World Cup and the T20 World Cup, Bangladesh claimed the ICC U-19 World Cup title in 2020.
The rivalry between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh has taken fans a lot in recent times. However, not many members of the cricket world remember that in 2014, Bangladesh lost their semi-final match against Sri Lanka due to a coin toss.
The match was part of the cricket event of the 2014 Asian Games. Incheon, South Korea hosted the mega event. Heavyweights India and Pakistan have stayed away from the men’s cricket competition. Ten teams participated in the tournament, namely Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, China, South Korea, Nepal, Maldives, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Kuwait.
The Islanders and the Bangladesh team were given direct entry to the quarter-finals due to their Test playing status, while Afghanistan and Hong Kong were also given byes into the first round due to their ODI status.
Bangladesh crushed Kuwait in the quarter-finals, while Sri Lanka beat hosts South Korea to advance to the semi-finals. Fans expected the battle between the Islanders and the Bangladeshi team to be the best in the tournament. Unfortunately, it ended up being one of the most bizarre semi-final games in cricket history.
Lahiru Thiriman’s luck helped Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by coin toss
The much-anticipated semi-final match between the two Test nations took place on 2 October 2014 at Yeonhui Cricket Ground. The Islanders won the toss and chose to field first. Bangladesh were 59/3 after 11 overs when rain halted proceedings in Incheon.
It continued to rain, forcing the organizers to abandon the match. According to the rules of the tournament, the organizers planned a Super Over race if the match did not end. However, due to the rain, even a Super Over was not possible. In this case, the organizers decided to spin a coin and declare the winner of the lottery as the finalist.
Lahiru Thiriman was out for the draw with Mashrafe Mortaza. Match referee Venkatapathy Raju tossed the coin as Terriman called for “tails”, and tails were so. Luck favored Thirimanne as the entire Sri Lankan team celebrated the victory.
Bangladesh was disappointed with the result. They had to settle for the bronze medal after defeating Hong Kong in the third-place match. The Islanders went on to win the gold medal by defeating Afghanistan in the final. Afghanistan took the silver.
Notably, a similar incident occurred in the group stages of the competition as well. In a Group B match, underdogs Kuwait scored a shock win over the Maldives on a coin toss. After the knockout, the Maldives players went to the Kuwait dressing room, where the Kuwait team sympathized with them as they knew that Maldives had a slightly stronger team.
Kuwait faced Bangladesh in the fourth quarter-final, where Bangladesh scored 224/9 in 20 overs and then beat their opponents in just 21 runs in 13 overs.
According to reports, BCCI will send a team for the men’s cricket event at the Asian Games this year. It will be interesting to see if India can win the gold.
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